By ALEX P. VIDAL
A senior official of the Taipei-based Formosa Heavy Industries Corporation (FHIC) has urged Filipinos to adopt the clean coal technology to ensure stability of power supply and to use it as “key to invite more investors in the country.”
Feng-In Hong, senior administrator of FHIC, explained in an e-mail that “clean coal technology is useful for your economic growth now and in the future and is environmental friendly.”
Hong, who has been with the company for almost 10 years now, swore that clean coal technology “will lower the power rate and improve the stability of the power supply in your country.”
“We are so glad that we can share with you some of our experiences here in Formosa for the coal fired power plants, we call it clean coal technology,” wrote Hong referring to the Clean Coal Technology Educational Tour participated mostly by journalists from Iloilo City last September.
Hong’s company had entered into a partnership with Global Business Power Corporation (formerly Mirant Global Corporation) “to help address the need for reliable supply of electricity in the Visayas at the least cost using clean coal technology,” said Engr. Adrian N. Moncada, Global Business Power Corporation’s assistant vice president. (Ed: Global Business Power Corporation has two diesel plants in Aklan which are serving as centers of controversy in the electric power field.)
TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE
Bringing together the two companies’ technical experience, they have proposed the “Panay Expansion Project”, a US$120-150 million investment.
The 100-megawatt Clean coal-Fired Power Plant (2x50-megawatt units) is being proposed to be built in the 15-hectare plant vicinity of the current Panay Power Corporation (PPC) in Brgy. Ingore, La Paz district, Iloilo City.
Moncada, who accompanied the contingent in the two-day tour, said the target markets of the project are Iloilo City, Guimaras and the rest of Panay Island. Its proposed timeline of construction is 24 months from 2008 to third quarter of 2010.
It will be installed near the sea so that coal could be delivered by ship and sea water can be utilized for condenser cooling.
Moncada said to minimize emissions and control waste, the new coal plant will use an enclosed coal conveyor system, an electrostatic precipitator which catches solid particulates, continuous emission monitoring system (CEMS) and continuous opacity monitoring system (COMS), waste water treatment facility and the latest circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler technology.
REDUCE ENERGY RATE
Moncada said Global Business Power Corporation (GBPC) is eyeing a coal fired plant to reduce the energy rate, improve power system reliability and address the issues on environment in the city of Iloilo.
The coal plant shall augment the supply of its existing diesel-fired power plant in the city, he stressed, which will be maintained as a peaking plant while the coal plant will serve as baseload energy source for Panay Island including Iloilo City and Guimaras Island.
GBPC operates a 72-megawatt diesel-fired power plant in La Paz but its capacity will not be enough to support the city’s growing demand for power which peaks at more or less 85 megawatts, it was learned.
Proponents of the project said the new coal plant will use the same “environment-friendly” technology of FHIC’s subsidiary, the Asia Power Energy Corporation (APEC)—an existing coal-fired plant based at the TECO special economic zone in Mabalacat, Pampanga.
TECHNICAL ASPECT
GBPC and FHIC have agreed that FHIC, the largest private enterprise in Taiwan with over 30 years and over 83 units of planning, engineering, construction and operation experience in and outside Formosa Group, will handle the technical aspect of the project such as designing and constructing the plant.
Proponents have observed that “there are certain limitations to non-renewable energy supply in the country.”
Coal, they pointed out, has 216 years of reserves, natural gas with 61.9 years and crude oil with 40.3 years remaining. Coal is reportedly “the most viable solution” to Panay’s looming power crisis in the coming years “considering its technical feasibility and commercial viability.”
The Semirara coal deposit is reportedly enough to support a 100-megawatt coal-fired power plant for 90 years aside from other potential alternative coal mines in the country.
“Coal is the most cost-efficient option compared to hydro, natural gas, geothermal or other renewable sources of energy,” stated the facts from the Panay Expansion Project Brief.“GBPC is open to tapping renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind, but none are available that are both technically feasible and commercially viable. Baseload plant options include natural gas or geothermal which are not available or sustainable in Iloilo City or elsewhere in Panay Island.” /MP
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